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Content that educates, engages, and inspires.Wed, 01 Nov 2017 15:01:45 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.2http://visualnews-wp-media-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/06113053/faviconvisualnewslogo-07-55x55.jpgVisual Newshttp://www.visualnews.com
3232TheVisualNewshttps://feedburner.google.comFree Interactive E-book: The Content Marketer’s Guide to Brand Videohttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheVisualNews/~3/Ss9swVhtVA0/
http://www.visualnews.com/2017/11/01/free-interactive-e-book-content-marketers-guide-brand-video/#respondWed, 01 Nov 2017 15:01:45 +0000http://www.visualnews.com/?p=148328If you don’t have video in your content mix, you’re missing out. It’s simpler to make than ever, and people really want to see it. (A 2014 Levels Beyond survey found that 51% of millennials would rather watch a video than read.) Now is definitely the time to dive in.

But we know you might be a little intimidated (or overwhelmed) to start, and you probably have a lot of questions. We’re here to help.

It’s all there, plus great data, pro tips, and great examples of brand video. We also made it interactive so you can skip to the stuff you want to know—and bookmark it when you want to come back. Click below to check it out now.

]]>http://www.visualnews.com/2017/11/01/free-interactive-e-book-content-marketers-guide-brand-video/feed/0http://www.visualnews.com/2017/11/01/free-interactive-e-book-content-marketers-guide-brand-video/HOW TO MAKE BETTER INFOGRAPHICS: TELL A SINGLE STORYhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheVisualNews/~3/y50ndsjqPYg/
http://www.visualnews.com/2017/07/07/make-better-infographics-tell-single-story/#respondFri, 07 Jul 2017 15:26:00 +0000http://www.visualnews.com/?p=146423This article originally appeared on Column Five.

A lot of people want to know how to make infographics. We’ve made over 4,000 infographics for tons of companies over the last decade, so we know a thing or two about it. Most importantly, we know it’s not enough to make an infographic; you need to make a great infographic. But too often we see people sabotage their work. How? They try to do way too much, cramming as much as possible in.

More stats!

Another CTA!

Product mentions!

Another 10 sources!

The instinct is understandable. You want to get the most bang for your buck. You want to give your reader as much info as possible. But this overlooks the actual purpose of an infographic: to tell a succinct story and deliver it in a package that makes it as easy to understand as possible.

WHY LESS IS MORE IN INFOGRAPHICS

Although infographics always been around, it was only in this decade that marketers fell in love with them. This has prompted the revival of a wonderful and effective communication form, but many people are enamored with their flashy visuals and snazzy copy, overlooking their intended use. (In fact, we often have partners come to us asking for an infographic, when what they’re really looking for is information design. Learn more about the difference between them.)

An infographic combines copy, data, and visuals—all three of which work symbiotically—to help people comprehend and retain information more effectively. That’s why they’re so unique. But many people don’t understand what really makes a good infographic. Too many people think the infographic process is something like this:

Slap together some copy.

Sprinkle in some charts and graphs.

Add a few illustrations, logo, and CTA.

Sit back and relax.

We’re here to set the record straight. Just because you have copy, data, and visuals doesn’t mean you have a good infographic. The best, most effective infographics don’t just “deliver information” with these elements. They tell an interesting, enticing story.

Why story? When you are trying to deliver specific information or get a certain message across, wrapping it in story makes it more accessible to the people you’re trying to reach. It’s an intuitive formula, and they know what to expect: introduction, setup, payoff.

“Cool! I can make a story,” we hear people say. And that’s when things can go even more off the rails. They drown their infographic in data. They stuff it with a novel’s worth of copy. They pack it with picture-book visuals. The result? A Franken-graphic that is an unreadable eyesore. Here’s the thing about story: It’s a balance. Sometimes you have too much, too little, none at all, or something way off track.

To make sure you’re telling a solid story, you need the right ingredients.

HOW TO MAKE INFOGRAPHICS THAT TELL A STRONG STORY

A strong infographic contains many elements, from the narrative to the design. To help illustrate the example, let’s walk through an infographic we created with Upwork, a global freelancing platform.

This infographic is a great example of a well-crafted, well-designed piece that is perfect for its intended audience and, therefore, helps the brand connect with them. Here’s how to emulate it.

1) CHOOSE A SINGLE TOPIC (THAT PEOPLE ARE INTERESTED IN)

This may be broad or specific, depending on your goals, but it should have a specific angle. You might craft an infographic about overall industry trends or tell a story about a specific sector of the industry, but don’t try to cover every single aspect of your industry in one infographic. Either way, it should be relevant to people’s interests.

Tip: If you are interested in exploring a topic from many angles, craft an infographic series. These can be published all together or used to enhance other larger pieces of content, such as an e-book. To make sure your story ideas are actionable and interesting to people, create marketing personas of your target audience. Try our exercise to help you do it in an hour.

The Upwork infographic is effective because it addresses a very specific subject that isn’t too broad or too granular: finding and attracting remote development talent. For a freelancing platform, this is a highly relevant topic.

2) EXTRACT RELEVANT DATA INSIGHTS

Sometimes you will already have these insights, which will inspire the topic. Sometimes you’ll have to go looking for them. The key here is to include only the most relevant data.That doesn’t mean you cut out data that doesn’t “support” your story, but you should include only that which helps you communicate it effectively.

This graphic was created using Upwork company data and survey data from 1,068 top-rated freelance developers on Upwork. It provides fantastic insight into what motivates and concerns this segment of the workforce.

3) STRUCTURE A CLEAR NARRATIVE

The same grade-school writing rules apply:

Introduce the topic.

Guide readers through in an intuitive manner, with supporting data.

Call out or provide context for any particularly relevant (or possibly unclear) data.

Wrap it up with a simple, intuitive CTA.

When it comes to actually writing:

Limit copy: Large blocks of text are an immediate turnoff. Data and design are meant to enhance and do some of the heavy lifting. Keep copy short, quick, and to the point.

Kill redundancy: Again, let design to its job. Don’t over label charts. Don’t call out the same stat in the body copy, header, callout, and chart. Keep it clean and simple.

The Upwork graphic doesn’t just throw in a few random stats. It presents data and translates that data into useful and actionable tips for the target audience. This helps them not only understand those workers (through data) but understand how they can attract those workers.

4) DESIGN FOR STORY

Another common issue on the design side is over-designing: adding a ton of illustrations, getting too crazy with a visual metaphor, or including chart junk that distracts from data visualizations. Everything from the layout to the font choice affects how the reader absorbs the story. Design should never distract, only enhance. Never forget that white space is your friend!

]]>http://www.visualnews.com/2017/07/07/make-better-infographics-tell-single-story/feed/0http://www.visualnews.com/2017/07/07/make-better-infographics-tell-single-story/HOW TO PICK THE BEST DATA VISUALIZATION FORMAT FOR YOUR STORYhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheVisualNews/~3/x45V_rGAAeE/
http://www.visualnews.com/2017/07/04/pick-best-data-visualization-format-story/#respondTue, 04 Jul 2017 15:26:00 +0000http://www.visualnews.com/?p=146422This article originally appeared on Column Five.

If you want to tell a powerful story, data is the way to go. Whether it’s proprietary data, industry research, or public data, there are compelling stories all around. But even the best data story can lose impact if it isn’t presented the right way. That’s why it’s so important to choose the right data visualization format for your data.

We find that there is a lot of misinformation or misunderstanding around this topic. Many people think that throwing a few charts and graphs into an article is all they need to tell a good data story. Or they think they can stuff a trillion data points into an infographic and call it a day. While the intention might be right, the execution is so wrong.

We want you to tell the best data stories you can, so we’re breaking down the different types of storytelling formats to help you choose the best for your data. (Note: This isn’t entirely prescriptive, but it should send you in the right direction.)

DATA VISUALIZATION FORMATS/TOOLS

Before we dive in, let’s clear up a few terms to specify what we’re talking about. When it comes to data storytelling, people tend to use certain terms interchangeably (or misuse them entirely), but there are very different types of data mediums and data visualization formats. For the purposes of this post, here’s how we break it down.

Data visualization: In the strictest sense, this refers to the actual visual representation of data. This may mean basic charts and graphs or larger, more complicated visuals. But it is about the visual specifically.

Information design: Information design is the visual representation of information—with no data at all (think of an organizational flow chart). We won’t be talking about info design here, but we think it’s important to understand the distinction.

Infographic: An infographic is a graphic that includes data, copy, and visuals. These elements work symbiotically to tell the story. (That means your infographic may include data visualizations.)

Animated infographic: These are infographics that include motion or animation. These are not interactive (see below), because the viewer doesn’t control the motion or animation.

Interactive infographic: An interactive infographic is any web-based content that lets you interact with the data on the screen. You may scroll over, click, expand, or otherwise manipulate the on-screen data.

Motion graphic: These are animated graphics that tell a story. Motion stories can be told through kinetic text, animated visuals, or both.

Video: This is live-action film, which may also incorporate text, graphics, etc.

Luckily, you have more options than ever to tell your story. But this can also make it tricky to choose which is best.

BEFORE YOU CHOOSE A DATA VISUALIZATION FORMAT

There are many elements that influence how you might best present your story. Before you decide on a format, think of the bigger picture. Each of these may affect the route you take.

Goal: Before you create anything or even come up with an idea, you should always know what your goal is. This is just as important to data storytelling as anything else. Are you trying to increase brand awareness? Establish your expertise? Engage your social followers? Some formats can help you achieve these goals more than others.

Story: An effective data story isn’t just a smattering of stats. If you’ve done your job well and teased out the insights, you can craft a narrative to reveal that story. That said, the story you’re trying to tell will very much dictate the data visualization format you choose. Is there a clear message? Are people meant to uncover or assign their own meaning to the story? Are you creating a useful resource? Are you trying to guide them to a next action? Keep this in mind.

Volume of data: This is one of the biggest issues we see over and over. People can go data-crazy sometimes and extract a mountain of data to turn into a story. That’s nice, but you must consider how much data is really required to tell the story. Sometimes you have millions of data points, and that’s OK. Just don’t stuff those into the world’s longest infographic.

Audience: Who are you trying to reach with your data story? Who will be interested in it? What level of knowledge or understanding do they have? What data visualization formats are they accustomed to interacting with? If you are targeting older boomers, for example, a fancy interactive might not be the way to go.

Distribution: Where will your data story live? On your blog? On social? Published on an industry site? How will you drive traffic to the piece? Know this from the get-go. If you are trying to engage people on social, the format you choose sure as hell better be optimized for social. (We once designed a beautiful animated infographic only to find out the publisher’s platform didn’t support the format. Then we cried.)

CHOOSING YOUR DATA VISUALIZATION FORMAT

Each data story is unique, so there isn’t a single rule or formula for choosing the best presentation. However, some are better suited than others to help you achieve your goals.

DATA VISUALIZATION

A strong data visualization can be used alone or as part of a larger piece. The power of strict data visualization lies in, of course, the visualization. A stunning visual is not only aesthetically appealing but lets the viewer “see” the story. Sometimes, a simple data visualization can be even more powerful than a detailed story with additional copy or context.

Good for: Data visualizations are often used as one part of a larger story in an infographic, white paper, e-book, on social, etc. (Simple visualizations are especially useful for situations in which time or attention is limited and you need to tell the story “at first sight,” such as a visual at a tradeshow booth.)

Example: This simple data visualization is a convenient guide to grilling meat. The data is depicted in chart form, making it easy for readers to get the info they need at a glance.

To make sure your data visualizations are effective, design them according to best practices. Find out how to do that with our Data Visualization 101 guide.

INFOGRAPHICS

Infographics are particularly useful to communicate in a simple, clear, and easy-to-understand way. They are aesthetically engaging and easy to share, making them a great tool for brand awareness. Publishers have become increasingly interested in infographics, as they visually enhance stories. Additionally, panels or slices from infographics can be repurposed as microcontent, helping to further promote the piece of content and give you more bang for your buck.

ANIMATED INFOGRAPHICS

Animated infographics have all the same benefits of infographics, but the addition of motion makes them more attention-grabbing. They are a good option if you want to mix up your content and experiment with motion without creating a full-on interactive or motion graphic. Like infographics, motion elements can also be repurposed in other areas.

Good for: Social, advertorial, or editorial, specifically situations where you need to grab attention to attract people to the content.

Example: We helped Newscred visualize the results of their content marketing survey by creating an animated infographic. The modular design allowed panels to be used individually or together.

INTERACTIVE INFOGRAPHICS

Interactive infographics are ideal for instances in which you have an enormous amount of data that needs to be easily navigable. You may present that as an exploratory interactive, in which users can dive into the data to extract their own meaning, or as a narrative interactive, in which you guide them through the interactive. Interactives require the viewer to actively engage by physically inputting information or manipulating data. It also encourages the viewer to spend more time with the content.

Example: We turned 10 million cells of data from a Northwestern University Qatar survey into a clean, colorful, easy-to-navigate piece. The interactive allows for exploratory storytelling, where the user can decide what data they are most interested in.

MOTION GRAPHICS

Motion graphics are particularly useful when you have an abstract concept or a story that needs more context to connect the dots. It is a contained storytelling format, which makes it easier to deliver a succinct story or direct message. It is also passive, allowing the viewer to sit back and absorb.

VIDEO

Video has become an increasingly popular medium, largely thanks to social platforms. Like motion, video can also incorporate text, graphics, and data visualization and offers an opportunity to demonstrate creativity. However, perhaps its strongest selling point is its ability to put a “human” spin on data stories by putting actors front and center.

Good for: Telling a succinct story in a short amount of time, especially when you are trying to create an emotional connection with the content.

Example: We partnered with Foodbeast and Totino’s to help tell a data story about Americans’ binge-watching habits. Using the actual Totino’s product as a visual challenged us to come up with creative data visualization.

REMEMBER: STORY FIRST

No matter what data visualization format you choose, remember the basics that will make it succeed: Strong data and a strong story. If you need a little help in that area, here are some things that might help:

Many content marketers think they’re doing content right. They brainstorm. They monitor upcoming events. They plan their editorial calendar based on things like:

New product releases and updates

Holidays

Company news

Current events

Trends

Conferences

They stick to their calendar and publish regularly. Yet their content fails.

It’s not surprising. When you’re too focused on just filling the content pipeline, becoming a slave to your editorial calendar, it’s easy to lose sight of what you should be creating.

What Is Good Content?

Good, effective content connects. It speaks directly to your audience and provides something that they want or need. Yet so much content meets readers at a superficial level; most of it lacks heart and emotional connection. It’s the equivalent of talking about the weather.

If you want to form relationships with your audience and convince them to invest in your brand, which you do, you need to connect through truly meaningful content that tells a worthwhile story.

How do you know what’s worthwhile? The strongest stories include two key traits:

They’re interesting: Most industries are becoming commoditized and more competitive, which makes it harder for brands to stand out. To break through, you need a strong, distinct voice. Telling unusual, unique, or intriguing stories helps you do this. That means diving past the surface, identifying interesting topics, teasing out unique angles, and turning them into compelling stories to capture your audience’s attention.

They’re useful: The quickest way to make your audience fall in love with your brand is to provide content that applies to their lives. (This type of content is also innately interesting to them.) To do this, you can focus on content that helps them solve a problem, learn something new, or do something better. Think education (blog posts, webinars, ebooks, etc.) or inspiration (customer or employee stories, etc.).

So you know what makes a compelling story, but where do you find those stories in your own operation? This is where things can get murky for marketers, but don’t get overwhelmed. You have the single greatest source of inspiration right in front of you, all around you, even in your instant messages.

It’s your company culture.

Why Culture Makes for Good Content

Content marketing is a long-term process to turn strangers into supporters of your brand. The first step of this process is introducing yourself—showing your audience who you are, how you see the world, and why anyone should care about any of this. Conveniently, these are the very same elements that comprise your company culture.

When you approach content from this angle, your stories inherently capture your unique and authentic perspective. This hits both marks for generating great stories:

They’re interesting because they’re unique; no other company has your mission, vision, values, people, origin story, failures, and successes.

They’re useful because they stem from your personal experiences. If you’ve experienced something or solved a problem firsthand, your audience is more likely to trust your advice.

When you peel back the curtain, you’re more vulnerable—and that’s the key to developing a deep, emotional connection with your audience.

But what does that look like in action? Here are 5 ways to turn your culture into incredible content:

1. Share Your Vision, Mission, and Values

If you don’t have these principles articulated for your company, you absolutely should. Sharing your company’s purpose through your vision, mission, and values helps your internal team understand why they’re working, what they’re doing, and how they’re supposed to be doing it. (This also helps create a cohesive culture.)

Additionally, showcasing your principles externally shows your audience who you are and what you stand for. Audiences crave connections with brands that share their same values. For some prospects, your principles could be the key factor in their decision-making.

Creating content around your principles doesn’t mean you publish your mission statement. It means you mine those values for inspiration. What do you care about? What inspires you? What’s been on your mind? How might you create content to move the needle on those issues?

This type of thinking has helped my company come up with many content ideas. For example, one of our values is “be good to each other.” This value also inspired us to create our People for Periods project, an interactive microsite to educate and help destigmatize menstruation in honor of Women’s Health Week.

On another occasion, after we read the story of how Ben Franklin once refused a loan repayment and directed the debtor to “pay it forward,” we became so inspired by the “pay it forward” philosophy that we turned the entire tale into a high-quality print, which ultimately became our holiday gift to our partners. (It was a much more meaningful gift than a branded coffee mug.)

This type of content is a simple way to put your beliefs out into the world and into your audience’s hands.

2. Highlight Your People

Your company is (or should be) full of great people. Celebrate them—and give them a platform. Your audience wants to put a face to your brand, and this is a great way to do it.

This can be as easy as creating a page that spotlights them or showcasing their work. It can be more involved, too. You might encourage your employees to write blog posts (even if they aren’t on the content team) about their experience or create content around a volunteer event that your company sponsors.

For instance, our Director of Strategy recently wrote a well-received article about battling—and beating—creative struggles called “The 15 Most Important Lessons I’ve Learned in Creative Work.” When one of our designers began to take calligraphy classes after work, we tapped her to hand-letter inspirational quotes for our Instagram account. And when our New York team helped YMCA kids create a chalk mural, we created a video recap.

If employees aren’t comfortable writing or producing content themselves, they can still brainstorm ideas, offer their perspectives, and help you identify angles your audience would find valuable.

Here are some other ways to highlight your employees:

Showcase their innovations, awards, etc.

Interview them (perhaps film them in their work environment)

Give them shout-outs on social media

3. Tell Your Origin Story

Find creative ways to showcase how your company started and how it’s evolved over time.

I find myself telling my company’s origin story most frequently during sales meetings, and I’m still pleasantly surprised by how interested people are in knowing this stuff. Why do people care? Because this is the stuff that is specific to each company, and stories of humble beginnings are always interesting, inspiring, and endearing.

Recently, my team has even started to help our partners tell their stories, too. We publish interviews with clients about how they built their companies, what they learned, and what advice they’d give to those facing similar issues.

4. Publish Your Failures

Everyone fumbles and fails their way through at least the early days of launching a brand. Even if you’re a 10-year business veteran, you will face challenges.

Sharing stories about how you’ve failed and what you learned humanizes your brand, makes you more relatable, and demonstrates that you are invested in learning and trying to improve—for yourself and your customers.

You may feel shy or strange at first talking about how you’ve absolutely botched something, but as long as you frame it in terms of what you’ve learned, you have nothing to lose.

5. Publish Your Successes

Hopefully, you don’t just have failures in your brand’s story. Just as you share your losses, you should share your wins—not in an arrogant way, but in a confident way. (Your audience appreciates your advice from failures, but they definitely want to know how to win.)

To ensure you stay humble, when you share your wins, think of ways to frame it in terms of why you won or succeeded. Doing so enables people to “stand on your shoulders.”

For example, when our agency created a viral video for Microsoft, we let our audience know about the success. But we presented it as a behind-the-scenes blog where we shared the strategic thinking that went into the project, how we vetted the idea, and why we think it worked.

If you help others around you succeed, you succeed.

Remember: Go Deeper

When you use your content as a conduit to express your culture, you can market your company as a unique entity versus a transactional, lowest-cost provider, which is the best advantage available. This alone should inspire you to grab your team and a pizza to start hashing out your ideas.

Using this tactic doesn’t mean you have to abandon your entire content strategy. You can build your editorial mix around high-value, high-interest ideas first, then plug in company news, new product updates and releases, etc. to maintain your publishing schedule.

No matter what you create, always focus on leading with value for your audience first.

Data visualization is an incredibly valuable tool for marketers. It helps you communicate important insights in a visual way, helping you deliver your message more impactfully. But not everyone does data design right—even if they say they do. A good data visualization agency knows data is about more than charts and graphs; it’s about bringing your data to life.

HOW TO FIND A DATA VISUALIZATION AGENCY

To make the hunt a little easier, here are 8 great questions to ask to help narrow down your search for the right data visualization agency.

1) DO THEY DEMONSTRATE THEIR DATA EXPERTISE?

Many agencies can churn out an infographic, but a great data visualization agency knows the fundamentals of data. They don’t just design; they can analyze and dig into the data to uncover interesting insights. They should also demonstrate that knowledge and share their knowledge and expertise freely. You want to know you’re working with true experts.

2) DO THEY TURN DATA INTO STORIES?

Data analysis is only step one of creating a great data visualization. Turning those insights into a solid narrative and using data visualization to support that narrative is what will make your project truly successful. You don’t just want a data visualization agency to plug your data into a design program. You want them to help you create the most impactful narrative possible.

3) DO THEY DESIGN DATA ACCORDING TO BEST PRACTICES?

Now here’s where a lot of agencies fall short. Yes, you can design a chart. Yes, you can add a pretty illustration. But this is not what true data visualization is.

The entire point of the art is to make data as comprehensible as possible, to present it in the most easy-to-digest format. There are subtle but very effective ways to do this. The way you label, order, or use color can help or hurt your data visualization. (You can find out more about best practices in the Data Visualization 101 e-book from our sister company, Visage.) Ask them about their data design philosophy to get a sense of how they approach it.

4) DO THEY WORK IN DIFFERENT MEDIUMS?

There are many ways to present data visualizations, including infographics, interactive experiences, video, and more. The format you choose is informed by your data story, which is why it’s so important to work with someone well-versed in data storytelling. They should be able to design whatever the data requires.

5) HAVE THEY CREATED SIMILAR WORK BEFORE?

If you have a specific idea in mind, you want to work with a data visualization agency that has the skills and experience to execute it for you. (You also want someone who can tell you if your idea doesn’t serve the data well.) Take a look at their portfolio to see if they’ve created similar work or have experience with similar clients or industries.

6) DO THEY HAVE A GOOD RESPONSE WHEN YOU ASK THEM WHAT THEIR FAVORITE TYPE OF CHART IS?

You want to work with people who are passionate about their craft. Asking this question will give you a sense of their knowledge and enthusiasm for data visualization. Trust us, any self-respecting data nerd will have an answer. (And if you want to hear some very strong opinions, you might also ask them which side of the pie chart debate they’re on.)

7) WHAT RECENT PIECE OF WORK ARE THEY PARTICULARLY PROUD OF, AND WHY?

You can comb through their portfolio to get a sense of what they do, but if you aren’t the most data literate person, it’s likely you’ll miss the nuance and craftsmanship that goes into a strong data visualization. Having them explain their thought process behind a design or what they did to help enhance comprehension will give you a sense of their creative process and problem-solving skills.

6) DO THEY HAVE THOROUGH AND THOUGHTFUL PROCESSES?

There are a lot of moving parts in a major data visualization project. Content needs approval, brand guidelines needs to be communicated, data need to be double-checked. If these responsibilities are unclear, if they fall through the cracks, or are ignored completely, it can affect the quality—and credibility—of your data visualization. Make sure you are clear on how they work, and how they expect to work together with you.

7) ARE THEY TRANSPARENT WITH YOU?

You want a creative partner you can rely on to produce good-quality work. If they seem less than confident, if their pricing is murky, or if you get a general bad vibe, it’s best to move on. Again, a lot of agencies claim that they can do any data visualization, but it is a very specific skillset that requires true expertise.

8) DO THEY APPROACH PROJECTS AS COLLABORATIVE?

You don’t want an antagonistic partner, but you don’t want a total yes-man either. A great piece of data visualization happens when the best ideas make it to the front—regardless of ego. If you have a great design suggestion, they should be open to it. If you’re heading in the wrong direction, you want them to tell you so. The goal is the best project possible. Work with a data visualization agency that puts that value above all else.

REMEMBER: YOU WANT A PARTNER

When looking for the right data visualization agency, don’t look for a gun for hire. You want an intelligent, thoughtful, creative partner to help bring your vision to life and steer you in the right direction.

There are many tools you can use to tell your brand story, and each have their own advantages. We’ve covered many of them, especially data visualization and infographics. These data storytelling formats are useful, but there is another format that is often forgotten: interactive stories. This format brings data to life in exciting and dynamic ways, which is why we love it.

If you haven’t experimented with interactive stories—or even heard of them—here’s what you should know.

WHAT ARE INTERACTIVE STORIES?

Interactive stories, infographics, or visualizations refer to a specific type of content, mostly found online. In its simplest form, interactive infographics are any web-based content that lets you interact with the information or data on screen. Technically, there are two features required to make something an interactive:

Human input: You should be able to control the visual representation in some way. This might be possible through mouseovers, clicks, drop-down menus, checkboxes, or other features to let you interact with the information on screen.

Response time: Your actions should affect the visualization in a timely manner. When you do something, you’ll see something on screen.

In short, it’s the communication of data in an interactive way. (For the most part, we’re referring to online interactive stories, but real-life interactive installations, A/R, or VR experiences also count.)

WHAT ARE INTERACTIVE STORIES USED FOR?

While there are many different formats for brand communication, interactive infographics are uniquely suited to help brands communicate in specific ways or deliver unique experiences. In general, you are most likely to see them used for data storytelling, fixed-narrative storytelling experiences, entertainment experiences, or practical tools. Depending on your goals, some applications may be better than others.

1) DATA STORYTELLING

Good data stories come from good data, but sometimes you have far more data than a single static infographic or white paper can contain. In these instances, interactive infographics are the best way to effectively present what is otherwise overwhelming information. Making that data easier to navigate helps the audience interact with and synthesize that information in a pleasant way.

To deliver these data stories, interactive infographics usually take one of two specific approaches: narrative or explorative. Not every data interactive falls clearly into each category. Some offer a blend of the two, but there are benefits to each.

1) Narrative: This approach guides readers through the data in a linear fashion, delivering a single narrative that conveys context and insight and often gives viewers a specific takeaway.

Example: The Anatomy of a Breach interactive we created for Microsoft guides readers through a data heist, crafting a specific story around the data breach to emphasize how important data security is.

This type of interactive storytelling usually requires fewer resources to create because it is a simple, contained story.

2) Explorative: This type of storytelling puts viewers in the driver’s seat, letting them browse information and extract their own relevant or interesting stories.

Example: Northwestern University Qatar conducted a massive survey on Media use in the Middle East. With so much data—an incredible 10 million cells to be exact—a static infographic would be impossible. We turned the information into a streamlined, colorful, easy-to-navigate experience.

This type of interactive is good for large or complicated data sets; however, because it usually involves large amounts of data, it requires more resources to produce.

2) FIXED-NARRATIVE STORYTELLING EXPERIENCE

Even in the absence of hard data, interactives are still a great way to deliver any sort of information or story. Narratives offer a contained environment, which gives you control over the story. Imagine a simple click-through slideshow or a narrative enhanced with interactive elements, such as animations. This type of storytelling is best used to deliver a specific message.

Example: We collaborated with Good magazine to create an interactive experience that allowed readers to learn about how a hybrid car works by interacting with different elements.

3) ENTERTAINMENT EXPERIENCES

Viewers crave content that entertains or inspires. When you are looking to create novel experiences or give a piece of content an entertaining spin, interactivity is a fantastic way to do it. Any piece of content can be enhanced by:

Audio

Video

Animation

Example: Our Beyond the Beat interactive tells the story of African-American musicians who made significant contributions to music. Copy, illustrations, and audio samplings bring their stories to life.

4) TOOLS

Interactive tools can help viewers complete a task, get a specific piece of information, or explore an interesting subject. (They can also be used to help your own company gather data.) For that reason, they provide immense value. Some common applications include:

Example: We collaborated with Mashable to create a quiz that polled their readers about how they pronounce certain tech terms. (The results were later visualized, providing even more content.)

3 REASONS INTERACTIVE INFOGRAPHICS WORK FOR BRANDS

Data storytelling a fantastic storytelling tool, but interactives are particularly well-suited to help marketers communicate with their audiences. Whether you’re trying to increase brand awareness, engage your audience, inform them about a product, or help them make a decision, interactives can give you an advantage.

1) They make valuable information easily accessible: Audiences want content that is relevant, useful, and most importantly worth their time. Delivering information in an easy-to-understand way is a huge service to them.

Providing this type of useful content also shows your audience you care and are interested in helping them access the information they want and need. The same goes for interactive tools that provide utility, such as calculators or product demos.

These unique resources make your audience look more fondly on your brand.

2) They encourage personal engagement: The goal of all content marketing is to establish a relationship with your reader. With interactives, you are welcoming them into the experience and encouraging them to come along with you.

Interactives put your audience in the driver’s seat of the story. Narratives guide them through a set experience, while explorative interactives allow them to set their own pace as they discover information. But both put interaction in their hands, encouraging them to dive in.

“If you think about visualizations as a mass medium, something made for huge audiences, interaction turns them into very personal tools,” says interactive expert Dominikus Baur. “Interaction enables people to adjust a visualization to their own needs and ask it different questions.”

This is a powerful way to create an intimate experience that helps form relationships.

3) They can provide real-time storytelling: Unlike static formats, an interactive with a dynamically updated dataset allows viewers to access real-time data that is always up-to-date. Static visualizations may need to be manually updated or adjusted, but a dynamic interactive just requires uploading the new data.

This convenience helps you provide accurate information quicker, giving you a competitive edge.

If you’re curious to see more of our work, head on over to our portfolio to see the many interactive infographics we’ve created for brands and publications. You can also get more tips on creating great interactives by checking out these posts.

That’s what marketers have been hearing for the past few years—and many of us have bought into this thinking.

In response to this, and to fill the need of an “always on” content operation, there’s been a push for content teams to function as publishers. That push for more content is so intense that some brands are using the 24-hour newsroom approach to create more and more content in an attempt to be relevant.

This is understandable, but it’s not always the most efficient approach. Maintaining high-quality production without a break is hard. And, if the quality of your content starts slipping to the point where it’s not engaging, it’s not worth it. Weaker content brings down the quality of your overall content efforts. According to a 2016 Content Marketing Institute report, 60% of marketers say “creating enough engaging content” is their biggest challenge.

More Content Is Not the Answer

It seems, for some, that “creating enough engaging content” has been wrongly interpreted as “creating tons of content.” This is the core problem: many marketers are overly focused on the word “enough.” Instead, marketers should put a greater emphasis on the word “engaging.”

Here are four ways to focus on creating engaging content and not just pumping out content to fill your editorial calendar:

1. Put More of Your Eggs in Fewer Baskets

This may sound counter-intuitive, but I’ve learned over the years that putting more of your eggs in fewer baskets often makes the most sense—at least for our team. Why is that, you may ask?

Well, say you had a plan to produce and buy media for 12 three-minute videos over the course of the year. That’s a lot of videos, and it will be hard to maintain momentum and quality. And this route may not make the most sense.

Instead, consider doing four videos throughout the year—and making each one the best possible video you can produce. Better yet, make each one you put out better than the one before. And then, after the release of each video, make sure that it makes sense to keep producing videos. If it does, then keep making them, and keep making them better. If it doesn’t, then consider stopping or reducing the volume of work you’re planning. Most brands have limited time and resources, and it’s better to allocate these things where they make the most sense.

Also, consider this: people will remember one beautiful video that you spent a lot of time fine-tuning and perfecting. People won’t remember a bunch of video pieces you rushed through production because the editorial calendar ruled supreme, and if they do remember them, it’ll likely be for the wrong reasons.

If, however, producing a lot of video content is a non-negotiable priority for your marketing team, consider the idea of scaling up gradually over time. It’s smarter to increase your investment gradually, and to develop momentum over time, than it is to come out of the gates at a pace that’s difficult to sustain.

Content marketing is a marathon not a sprint. And, there’s no finish line. That can sound daunting, but I personally prefer to be realistic so that I can plan accordingly.

Are you creating content because you have reason to believe that it will work (based on previous successes)? Or are you creating something simply because you decided to do so months ago?

Content strategy is iterative (everyone’s figuring it out as they go), and you need to make sure that you are always making room for changes in plans that are based on what’s working and not working.

How do you determine whether your content is working? You measure it, regularly. One of the ways that we sanity check our content plan is to talk about it, a lot. We have bi-weekly brainstorms to come up with new ideas and kill ideas that we don’t love (if we can’t make them better). Search plays a big role in our marketing efforts, so we do a comprehensive KPI check-in on a monthly basis. This enables us, on a rolling basis, to determine what type of content works and what doesn’t. This intel then shapes our brainstorming sessions and helps us to determine what to create in the future.

Then, at the end of each quarter, we do a debrief and we discuss a) what worked, b) what didn’t work, and c) what could work if we did things better/differently. This helps us ensure that we’re not spinning our wheels and just creating content because it sounded like a good idea months ago and we have the people and time to do it.

3. Slow Down and Iterate Until You Get Things “Just Right”

There’s a saying that I love: “Doing something right is better than doing something fast.”

Obviously, you don’t want to procrastinate so much that you never actually get anything done. On the contrary, the first draft or version of most things usually needs to be polished. Also, doing things right tends to take more time than you initially thought… this is just the nature of the beast; so, whenever possible, set more conservative timelines for the work that your team produces.

In an ideal scenario, this means giving yourself the time and space to create something great every time you set out to create a piece of content. Not doing this is counter-productive. Why kill yourself to hit a deadline, if what you ultimately put out is not something you’re proud of? You’re going to hate it, and it’ll dilute your brand.

While this can be difficult when you are on a limited timeline, it gets easier when you really pursue a quality over quantity approach with your content, whereby you’ve got more of your eggs in one basket, and you are constantly sanity checking what you’re working on.

4. Do You; Don’t Focus on the Competition

It’s good to be aware of what your competitors are doing, but you can’t let your marketing efforts devolve into a competition with other brands.

IMO, the best brands are the ones that know who they are, what they stand for, and stay true to this. Conversely, weaker brands follow the crowd, constantly looking for the next novel thing to tinker around with.

While it can sometimes be difficult, and it always takes a lot of dedication, you need to do what is right for you and your audience. They are ultimately the most important consideration when it comes to what you’re doing with your content efforts. Also, it’s important that you stay true to your brand because, chances are, people (read: customers) were drawn into it and don’t want it to change.

The best way to know if what you’re doing is working for the people you’re trying to reach? Ask them. Conduct surveys. Email your customers. Take them out to dinner. Whatever feedback mechanism works best for your business, do that.

Focus on the Right Thing

If you remember one thing from this post, I hope that it’s that people don’t care about how often you post, they care about what you post; they crave content that is useful, relevant, and valuable. Keeping this in mind is key to developing a content approach that prioritizes quality over quantity.

Data storytelling is one of the best ways to create unique, original, and credible content marketing, but you need some solid data sources to start.

Good marketers are well-suited to extract and communicate great data stories because they know who they’re talking to, what interests them, what their pain points are, and how to speak to them. (That’s where data scientists often struggle.) So there’s no reason not to dive into data—unless you don’t know where to look. here is plenty of data all around, both in your company and on the online.

THE BEST DATA SOURCES TO START

There is plenty of data all around, both in your company and on the online. Here are 9 great data sources to help you uncover your next great data story.

1) SURVEYS

Surveys are one of our favorite data sources because they let you tap right into the thoughts and feelings of specific groups. They can be short or lengthy, surveys can always provide great fodder for stories whether they come from your own company or an industry survey.

Example: We helped Newscred visualize the results of a content marketing survey in an animated infographic.

2) CUSTOMER DATA

This information has long been used to help companies create a better experience for their customers, but it can provide valuable insights into your customers’ wants, needs, or knowledge gaps—and help you identify how your content can address those issues.

An added bonus: This information helps you build stronger audience personas (psychographic maps of different audience segments), which you can use to vet any and all content marketing ideas going forward.

Example: To celebrate Number26’s first year in business, we created an infographic to show their success, using insights from customer data.

3) COMPANY INITIATIVES

Data storytelling offers a chance to shed light on many different aspects of your company. Even better, all of that data is right in your hands. Think of ways that information might be used to educate people about what you do or who you are.

Example: We partnered up with The World Bank to create an interactive data visualization that allows users to explore the different ways the company is funding new educational initiatives worldwide.

4) ANALYTICS

You have access to a ton of info, from how many visitors your website has to how your efforts are performing. There are plenty of great stories in this data. When you know what people respond most to, you can determine what stories they’d be most interested in. Sometimes even your own marketing efforts can become the story.

5) COMPANY REPORTS

Reports, white papers, and case studies all contain valuable information that can easily be turned into data storytelling. Even better, the data contained in these reports can be published on social as microcontent, helping to further promote the original piece of content.

Example: We helped HighFive turn insights from their “Workplace Culture and Communication” report into an engaging infographic.

6) INDUSTRY STUDIES

Not every company has the resources to commission large studies, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find an original angle in other people’s data. (In fact, studies from larger entities may get you access to data you wouldn’t otherwise have.) Look for ways to pull interesting insights out of these studies and turn them into useful content.

Example: We turned data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report into an interesting infographic about the ages that entrepreneurs are most likely to pursue their business. For Clarity, a company that connects startup entrepreneurs with business experts, it was a perfect subject.

7) ANNUAL REPORTS

Beyond the standard legal requirements and financial disclosures, annual reports include a wealth of interesting data. Creative data storytelling can really bring this info to life as infographics, interactive infographics, motion graphics, and more.

8) EMPLOYEE DATA

Your coworkers and company culture can also make for interesting or entertaining data storytelling. This is especially great fodder for social media, where you can really show off your brand personality.

Example: As data geeks and lovers of our Beer Friday tradition, we tracked a day’s worth of company liquid consumption and turned it into a fun little infographic.

9)PUBLIC SOURCES

The Web is full of interesting data sets from reliable sources, such as government agencies, educational institutions, and non-profits. You can mine these to uncover data stories or use them to supplement stories you already have. To start, check out our roundup of 104 free data sources.

Example: For Earth Week, NBC Universal used data from the Natural Resources Defense Council to create a video encouraging Americans to reduce food waste.

LEARN TO TELL BETTER DATA STORIES

No matter what data story you’re telling, the key is to make sure your story is credible, interesting, and delivered effectively. To help you do that:

Laura Winkenbach is VP of Product Marketing & Content for HR software company Zenefits. In an increasingly complicated industry, she’s tasked with educating and engaging customers to make their lives easier. Her tool? Content. We caught up with Laura to chat about how she uses content to make a great first impression, establish a relationship, and continue to provide value to Zenefit’s customers.

C5: Tell us a bit about your role. What do you do?

LW: I lead our product marketing and content efforts at Zenefits. We help educate and engage prospects in learning more about Zenefits and the HR space in general. With HR becoming a much more strategic and critical role at growing companies, it’s tough for HR leaders to stay on top of regulatory changes, business trends, and HCM in general.

C5: What role does content play in your overall branding and marketing efforts?

LW: Content is the tip of the spear in many of our efforts. We try to offer helpful and educational content to engage prospects. By offering valuable and exclusive research, thought leadership, articles, webinars, and more, we offer something to prospects before we ask them to learn about our products and solutions. The goal is to create a positive perception of Zenefits by offering value first.

C5: What does your team look like?

LW: We’re a lean team. We have two product marketers and two content marketers who work closely together on messaging, positioning, go-to-market, and demand generation.

C5: What is your team’s main focus right now?

LW: Right now we are focusing on increasing organic traffic and improving conversions of that traffic from visitors to leads. We’re putting a lot of effort into our blog and focusing on topical, editorial content.

C5: How do you measure results?

LW: We track our organic traffic patterns pretty closely, as well as how those visitors are engaging with content (time spent on page, visitors to form-fills, etc.).

C5: Which types of content yield the best quality leads for your brand?

LW: For us, leads who express interest in our products are clearly deepest in the funnel. For example, if someone downloads a product sheet or watches a demo video, they are more likely going to convert to a personalized demo or a free trial. But not all leads are ready to purchase just yet. That’s why we maintain a useful and thoughtful stream of content and communication to keep the relationship going.

C5: What role does your proprietary data play in your marketing?

LW: We actually just released one of our first research reports, the Benefits Benchmark report. We heard from countless customers that they were looking for benchmarks on what similar companies and businesses in their region were spending on employee benefits. We aggregated the data from our database and analyzed the findings into a number of key trends, all published in our report.

The great thing about this report is that it isn’t survey based, as many reports tend to be. It’s actual data. These types of reports are hugely valuable to current customers but also help drive leads from new prospects as well.

LW: Salesforce always does a great job with going big and being consistent with a theme. They maintain the same theme throughout all their content, whether it’s their website, printed collateral, event signage, and more. Having this consistency makes them immediately recognizable even if you don’t see their logo. This type of brand and visual storytelling is tough to do, but they’ve aligned things well.

Personally, I’m kind of obsessed with Chubbies. Their stories and content truly bring to life their entire brand and mission. This resonates in the brand, their product, the messaging, and certainly in their content. They make me ready for the weekend. =)

C5: What’s the most rewarding part of what you do?

LW: Getting positive feedback from prospects and customers that our content was useful is the most rewarding thing. While we certainly want to acquire leads and convert them to customers, it’s my job to give prospects a positive first impression of Zenefits. And if we can do that by offering them useful research or information that helps them do their job better, we feel pretty good about ourselves.

C5: At work, what is the biggest pain in the ass?

LW: Content distribution! If you build it, they don’t always come. It’s tough to make sure content is discoverable, and this doesn’t happen on its own. We’ve augmented our strategy quite a bit to focus more on SEO and keywords that are in demand. But it’s hard to make sure that everyone who has a question can find the content you created to answer it.

C5: If you had an “easy” button, what would you have it do for you?

LW: It would pretty much take over Google’s algorithm. Just kidding.

C5: What would you tell/teach yourself 5 years ago that would have better prepared you for your work today?

LW: I spend a lot of time thinking about leadership and what makes a great leader. I’ve learned a ton over the years and have been lucky enough to work with some amazing leaders. One of the best things I’ve taken from these years is that every moment can be a coaching moment and a sharing moment.

Nothing has meant more to me than when my leader or mentor gave me feedback, a special tip or trick, or spent time offering more explanation. These moments have helped me be successful in all kinds of situations. I try to do the same with my team now, to empower them to make decisions in their own domain, take risks, and share wins and failures equally. So 5 years ago, I’d have to tell myself to “always be sharing.”

C5: What piece of advice would you give someone interested in getting into content marketing and brand storytelling?

LW: I’d say the most important is to be purposeful. There is SO much content created because “someone thought it was a good idea,” because a competitor did it, or because it “feels like we should do something about X.” Without a clear goal, purpose, distribution plan, and success metric defined in advance, you run the risk of creating content that no one will read. And, worse yet, you won’t know if it was successful or not. My strong advice is to be purposeful in everything you build.

C5: Any last parting words or nuggets of wisdom?

LW: Umm, we’re marketers. Have fun! Avoid the jargon and just act as if you’re having a conversation with someone walking down the street. Too much writing has become so technical and formal. Even if you’re writing about technical subject matter, you can still be conversational.

Many thanks to Laura for sharing her thoughts. Follow Laura’s posts on the Zenefits blog and keep up with her on Twitter @llbrooks44. For more wisdom from game-changers in content marketing and content strategy, check out these Q&As:

]]>http://www.visualnews.com/2017/06/23/zenefits-uses-content-build-strong-relationships/feed/0http://www.visualnews.com/2017/06/23/zenefits-uses-content-build-strong-relationships/Which Graduate Degree Gets You Out Of Debt The Fastest?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheVisualNews/~3/tmCNkRcF-xg/
http://www.visualnews.com/2017/06/22/graduate-degree-gets-debt-fastest/#commentsThu, 22 Jun 2017 15:18:00 +0000http://www.visualnews.com/?p=146416This article originally appeared on Priceonomics.

If you’re one of the 29% who feels their choice of major in college didn’t prepare them to secure the job they wanted after graduation, you may be considering graduate school as a shot at a do-over. Those seeking higher income may indeed find themselves better equipped after earning a graduate degree. But this second chance can come at a steep cost.

But is it worth it? And moreover, does it matter financially if you attend a prestigious graduate school or not?

One way of answering this question is to look at how much income you make after grad school compared to the amount of debt you’ve now accumulated. We decided to analyze data from Priceonomics customer Earnest, a financial services company, to see which advanced degrees produced graduates with the the most (and least) student debt and how that compared to their actual earnings after school.

We found that medical professionals take on the most debt – even when their high salaries are accounted for – while MBAs enjoy a low debt burden relative to their income.

We also looked at the question of does the prestige of the school matter.

We found graduate program prestige comes with tangible financial benefits: for all disciplines except medicine, graduates of top-100 programs enjoy lower debt relative to their income upon graduation. This trend continues after graduation, with the exception of engineering graduate students, where students from less prestigious schools have more favorable debt to income ratios six years after graduation than their counterparts from higher ranked schools.

***

We first asked how much debt the typical graduate degree holder carries. This data is supplied by respondents looking to refinance their debt, so while it is self-reported, users must be reasonably accurate if they wish to receive realistic rate estimates. Average student loan debt – which comprises debt accumulated in college and graduate school – is reported for each degree type below.

Future medical professionals – a category that includes doctors, dentists, and pharmacists – can expect to take on the most debt to finance their degrees. Future lawyers, too, take on six-figure debt to finance their degrees. Masters programs of all stripes are the cheapest, though graduates’ debt still ranges from around $60,000 all the way up to nearly $90,000.

This ranking lines up with degree program duration: MD programs typically take 4 years to complete, JDs 3 years, and full-time masters programs 1 or 2 years.

Even with a hefty price, a degree program may be worth it if it confers earning power to match. If we account for income, do doctors still have the highest debt compared to other graduate degree-holders?

To answer this question, we divided average debt by our respondents’ average self-reported income to calculate a debt-to-income ratio for each group of graduates. Debt-to-income ratios below 1 mean these degree-holders make more than they paid for their degree in one year. Values over 1 mean the degree cost more than what the typical graduate makes in a year.

Even if we take income into account, medical professionals bear the greatest burden when it comes to paying for their degrees. These graduates make a solid income, but it’s not enough to balance out their formidable debt.

Graduates with Masters of Arts degrees take second place in our debt-to-income ranking despite paying the least for their credentials. These graduates can expect relatively low starting salaries that handicap their ability to pay down debt.

At the other end of the spectrum, MBAs enjoy the lowest debt-to-income ratio. These degrees are relatively affordable and confer high earning power.

The relationship between income and debt changes over time as graduates climb the career ladder and pay down their loans. We wanted to see how debt-to-income ratio changes as graduates establish themselves in their careers, so we broke our sample down by years post-graduation to chart a debt-to-income trajectory for each degree type.

Graduates with all degree types experience a decrease in debt-to-income ratio after graduation, but in some professions, those ratios come down faster than in others.

Medical professionals have the highest debt-to-income ratio immediately after graduation. This is likely because MDs begin their careers in residencies, which are essentially low-paid apprenticeships lasting 3 to 6 years. Once residents become practicing physicians, they can expect comfortable six-figure salaries and subsequently make fast progress on their debt.

In contrast, MBAs have the flattest trajectories toward debt freedom. Though they have the lowest debt-to-income ratio across the entire post-graduation time period we considered, they make the least progress between years 1 and 11 after graduation.

The chart below zooms in on the last data point in our chart, ranking debt-to-income ratio for midcareer professionals 11 years removed from graduation.

Even in the middle of their careers, graduates with Masters of Arts degrees earn relatively little compared to their debt. Costly law and medical degrees hold debt-to-income ratios near 1 for lawyers and doctors, as well.

Professionals with degrees in business, science, or engineering fare comparatively better, making comfortably more than the cost of their degree in one midcareer year.

Of course, all degrees aren’t created equal. Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, for example, grants its MBA recipients access to a higher-powered network than does the average public college. This advantage could translate to a real difference in earnings and, in turn, debt-to-income trajectory.

To see the difference grad school reputation can make, we broke our sample down based on whether a graduate’s degree program landed in the top 100 for their field, then charted debt-to-income trajectory over 11 years post-graduation.

School reputation matters. Across a variety of disciplines, professionals who graduate from higher-ranked schools begin their careers with less debt relative to their income. And for the most part, this trend is still apparent a decade after graduation.

There’s one exception: medical professionals have more or less the same debt-to-income trajectory regardless of their school’s reputation. With respect to student debt, all medical degrees are created equal.

***

So if you’re seeking an affordable graduate degree that will boost your earning power, what should you do?

The “rich doctor” stereotype makes medicine look appealing, but it doesn’t do justice to the burden of financing an MD. Medical professionals take on an average debt near $200,000 to finance their degrees, and early in their careers, their income does little to offset their debt. Attending a more prestigious school doesn’t mitigate their high debt-to-income ratio; graduates of top schools pay just as much relative to their salary as grads from lower-ranked programs.

In contrast, the average MBA makes six figures after spending one or two years in graduate school. They typically take on around $90,000 in debt, but consistently enjoy a low debt-to-income ratio. This is doubly true for graduates of top-100 business programs, who enjoy the high income that comes with access to a high-powered alumni network.